Acting
Elias Koteas chews scenery as the unhinged Jailer.
Production
Real prison location amplifies the suffocating atmosphere.
Director
Robert Archer Lynn
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Filmed at the real Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee, former home of James Earl Ray.
The film's meta-commentary on horror directors exploiting suffering mirrors the very genre it inhabits — deliberately uncomfortable or accidentally revealing?